CIVISTI - Ambient Assisted Living

Autonomous Living - Citizen's visions for a more independent ageing are turned into recommendations for the Viennese city government

Technologies and services in the field of autonomous aging (AAL) to increase autonomy, social participation and quality of life of older people. CIVISTI aims to draw attention to the specific needs of the users.

Oftentimes, the developers of technologies for older adults are close to market research and development . This frequently leads to a strong focus on economic issues. CIVISTI AAL aims to deliver the basis for R & D decisions which are based on the needs of the users.

The CIVISTI method

CIVISTI stands for "Citizen Visions on Science, Technology and Innovation" and is a new method developed by the ITA which has already been tested in seven EU countries. It enables us to show different perspectives on problems and current social tensions.

CIVISTI-Ambient Assisted Living - an evolution

CIVISTI-AAL is an evolution: For the first time our research focuses on a specific local area, namely Vienna. The results are expected to be more concrete than other foresight studies and therefore easier to implement for R&D. Viennese citizens, stakeholders (nurses, company, family members of those affected) and experts will develop a holistic view on issues relevant for autonomous ageing. The process will consist of five steps:

D In standardized CIVISTI workshops, citizens will create visions for an independent life of older people in Vienna in the year 2050

Based on the values, desires and fears contained in these visions, teams of experts and stakeholders will devise recommendations for research and policy-makers.

Both visions and recommendations will then be analyzed and merged into an imaginary newsletters from the year 2050.

The results will then be rated according to their priority by the participating citizens and experts. They will then be presented on the website leben2050.at, where they can be rated

The website will be available to the general public. Everyone will be invited to vote for their favorite recommendations. The results will be published at specific intervals in the form of a "topics barometer".

Communication

This advanced process merges offline (face-2-face) and online (keyboard-keyboard-2) deliberation in order to take advantage of both forms of participation. By the year 2014, the web application available at www.leben2050.at will enable the participation of a larger number of people, making the external legitimacy of the results more likely. The workshops throughout the first phase ensure the intense personal exchange between the citizens which is crucial for the creation of common visions and ideas. An important goal is to involve as many older adults in the evaluation process as possible. This poses great challenges for the design of the web application and the communication strategy of the project partners.

Ambient and assistive technologies (AT) have the potential to increase individual autonomy, social participation and quality of life for ageing populations. In seeking to implement these technologies, national and supranational funding schemes have strongly supported primarily market-driven research activities. This means that other societally relevant aspects, such as specific social and cultural contexts, are likely to be underestimated if not neglected. In view of the development of RI, this would be a serious misconception. We examine three recent participatory forward-looking technology assessment studies that involved experts, stakeholders and laypersons in discussions about the future of ageing and AT, and identify the diverse futures they imagine. We show different ways an ageing society of the future can be pictured, and contribute to the discourse on European demographic change as a Grand Challenge. In the light of RI, this diversity of imagined futures underlines the finding that answers to societal challenges connected to an ageing population cannot only be found by means of technological solutions, societal aspects will also play an important role.